France is to scrap payments aimed to encourage Roma to return to their countries of origin but which did not prevent them coming back to France, reports Radio France Internationale.

Interior minister Manuel Valls said on Sunday that the so-called “humanitarian aid” will be wound up by the end of the year.

The payments of 300 euros per adult and 100 per child were introduced by the previous right-wing government of President Nicolas Sarkozy.

They were available to all European Union nationals but, in practice, intended to encourage Roma to return to Romania and other east European countries.

Rights groups have accused Valls of continuing Sarkozy’s Roma policy, which a UN report described as discriminatory.

Campaigners were particularly critical of the humanitarian payments, claiming that people claimed the money and then returned to France.

France’s Roma population has remained stable, at about 15,000-20,000 people, they claim, despite the fact that 10,600 people received the payments last year.

Valls said that the payments would be scrapped “in the next few days” but that the state would continue to pay for return tickets and provide a 50-euro allowance to help them get home once arrived in their country of origin.

Other aid payments made to deportees will be reduced, the minister added.